A Long March 2C rocket rose from the mountainous terrain of China’s Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Thursday as part of the country’s fifth orbital space launch of the year, deploying the fourth set of Yaogan-30 reconnaissance satellites.

The final building block in a critical global missile warning system operated by the Pentagon took flight on Friday atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket blasting off into the night over Florida’s Cape Canaveral.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 411 rocket, flying with a single Solid Rocket Booster, lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 0:48 UTC on January 20, 2018 with the fourth satellite of the Space Based Infrared System

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 411 rocket, flying with a single Solid Rocket Booster, lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 0:48 UTC on January 20, 2018 with the fourth satellite of the Space Based Infrared System,

A ULA Atlas V rocket rolled to its Cape Canaveral Launch Pad on Wednesday in preparation for a thunderous nighttime liftoff on Thursday to lift the fourth SBIRS missile-warning satellite into orbit to complete a constellation capable of spotting anything from tactical missiles to tracking the path of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.

The classified NROL-47 satellite launched by a Delta IV rocket on Friday had barely made its first lap around Earth when its identity as a radar reconnaissance satellite was revealed by amateur satellite trackers listening to the spacecraft’s radio transmissions, found to be in family with predecessor missions of the same kind.

China conducted its third space launch in a span of just over four days on Saturday, involving a Long March 2D rocket lifting off from the country’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center to dispatch the third satellite in the LKW Land Survey Constellation into orbit.

A United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket thundered off from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on Friday on classified government business, lifting the secret NROL-47 satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office to replenish the U.S. spy satellite fleet.

A United Launch Alliance Delta IV M+(5,2) rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 6 at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base at 22:11 UTC on January 12, 2018 on a classified mission with the NROL-47 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.

The United Launch Alliance launch team in California played a game of patience on Thursday, taking a Delta IV rocket through a four-hour launch window in an attempt to get the NROL-47 reconnaissance satellite off the pad.

China continued its busy beginning of year push on Thursday with the launch of a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, carrying the next two Beidou-3 navigation satellites to join the country’s growing global navigation satellite system

United Launch Alliance is gearing up for the final West Coast launch of the single-stick Delta IV rocket, planned from Vandenberg’s SLC-6 at 21:00 UTC on Thursday with the classified NROL-47 satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office to replenish the U.S. spy satellite fleet.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral under a veil of darkness Sunday night, both literally and figuratively with launch occurring at 1:00 UTC Monday morning, carrying into orbit the top-secret Zuma spacecraft which, from a public perspective, has all traits of a black project.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1:00 UTC on January 8, 2018 with the classified Zuma payload for Northrop Grumman and an unnamed U.S. government agency.